Louis XIV who paid great attention to the fate of the soldiers that had served in his campaigns confirmed his desire to construct a royal building of sufficient size to receive all officers and men who are crippled or old and frail and to guarantee sufficient funds for their subsistence and their upkeep.
The responsibility for this grandiose project fell upon the Marquis de Louvois, Louis XIV’s Minister of War.
The foundation stone was laid in 1671. Louis XIV in person received the first pensioners who took up residence in October 1674. The main building and its courtyards were completed in three years. The hotel was finally completed at the beginning of the XVIII century by Jules Hardouin Mansart and his young disciple, Robert de Cotte.
This hotel housed some 4000 war casualties at the end of the XVII century and truly looked like a small town. The war casualties, lead by officers, had to obey military orders and follow religious rules.
